Saudi Arabia, Russia, Gulf states supply help in Raisi chopper search | World News
Saudi Arabia on Sunday voiced “nice concern” after Iranian state media reported {that a} helicopter carrying President Ebrahim Raisi had gone lacking, and supplied to assist with the response.
“We affirm that the Kingdom stands by the sisterly Islamic Republic of Iran in these troublesome circumstances and its readiness to offer any help that the Iranian businesses want,” the overseas ministry of the Gulf kingdom, a longtime rival of Iran, mentioned in a press release.
Iranian search and rescue groups had been scouring a fog-shrouded mountainside as Iranian state media mentioned “an accident occurred to the helicopter” transporting Raisi, a 63-year-old ultraconservative.
The Gulf state’s overseas ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari gave “Qatar’s needs for the protection of the president, the overseas minister, and their companions”, the assertion added.
The United Arab Emirates mentioned it was able to “help search and rescue operations”, and Kuwait declared it was standing “with the Islamic Republic of Iran in these troublesome circumstances”.
Shiite-majority Iran and Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia have lengthy been on opposing sides of regional conflicts, together with in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
In 2016 bilateral ties had been severed after assaults on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran throughout protests over Riyadh’s execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
However in March 2023 the Center East heavyweights introduced a shock rapprochement brokered by China, they usually have been in comparatively frequent contact in current months as they labored to include the warfare triggered in Gaza by Hamas’s October 7 assault on southern Israel.
That diplomatic outreach included the primary telephone name between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler, and Raisi simply 5 days after the warfare broke out and a go to by Raisi to Riyadh in November for a gathering of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
